comercials

[jfalkon]

Have you ever noticed how advertisements sometimes make no sense? I watch TV every day and have noticed that many of the adds seem to defy logic.

 

For example, can anything be new AND improved at the same time? Maybe they meant newly improved.

 

How about the woman who wants to "be the house" where every one hangs out? I did not believe my ears the first time I heared that one. Did she just say she want's to be a house?

 

There's also a comercial that compares the human body to a tree and then explains that a tree gets energy from the sun. So far so good but then they go on to say that the sole purpose of roots is to eliminate toxins. So if a tree craps through its roots I have to wear special pads on my feet at night. What?

 

Then there is the yogurt comercial where a woman refuses to go swimming because she is constipated. How does constipation affect one's ability to swim? I would think diareah would be more of a problem in the pool. :wacko:

 

Am I the only one noticing this?

[kitten]

Have you ever noticed how advertisements sometimes make no sense? I watch TV every day and have noticed that many of the adds seem to defy logic.

 

For example, can anything be new AND improved at the same time? Maybe they meant newly improved.

 

Am I the only one noticing this?

 

I've noticed that too...

Also, it seems even more stupid to combine 'New & improved' with 'Original'!

 

Kit

[MikeL]

Am I the only one noticing this?

You are probably not the only one noticing nonsensical advertising. I doubt, too, that I am the only one not noticing. It seems I have developed the ability to completely ignore commercials. The advertisers are really wasting their money on me. Of the examples you mentioned, I can remember exactly none. Actually, the pads on the feet thing is vaguely familiar; I don't remember the tree though. Occasionally, someone will describe a commercial they've seen, and I think that it seems familiar, but I couldn't possibly tell you what kind of product - let alone the brand name - is being advertised.

 

I also make good use of the remote control. If the show I'm watching breaks for commercials, I'll flip to Fox News for 3 or 4 minutes. (You begin to develop a feel for how long a break will be.) What does surprise me is how so many networks schedule their advertising for exactly the same time as all the other channels. You can surf the channels and find commercials on all of them.

 

The Super Bowl commercials? That's a different story. I do watch and remember them. I can't change channels because we have a crowd over every year; a lot of them watch the commercials and talk during the game.

 

Anyone else immune to TV commercials?

[canundra]

The Super Bowl commercials? That's a different story. I do watch and remember them. I can't change channels because we have a crowd over every year; a lot of them watch the commercials and talk during the game.

 

Super Bowl commercials are the best. However, while I was growing up, the local cable company would always replace the Super Bowl commercials with local ones. (I grew up in a U.S. territory.)

 

Now that I'm in the continental U.S., I finally am able to watch the commercials. My favorite one this year was the one with the guy sitting in an armchair in front of a mouse hole, eating a bag of Doritos chips. Suddenly, this man in a mouse suit jumps through the wall and tackles the guy.

 

HILARIOUS.

[MikeL]

Super Bowl commercials are the best. However, while I was growing up, the local cable company would always replace the Super Bowl commercials with local ones. (I grew up in a U.S. territory.)

 

Now that I'm in the continental U.S., I finally am able to watch the commercials. My favorite one this year was the one with the guy sitting in an armchair in front of a mouse hole, eating a bag of Doritos chips. Suddenly, this man in a mouse suit jumps through the wall and tackles the guy.

 

HILARIOUS.

Would you believe I don't remember that one?

[canundra]

Would you believe I don't remember that one?

 

Haha. Yeah, I could

 

But it was one of the better ones.

[Phantom]

Ok I'm watching a comercial last night and I was never more confused by it.

 

It had athletes for the NFL, but honestly it looked more like a party commercial or a commerical for alcohol then a commercial for then for the upcoming football season.

[Tiger]

Some commercials insult my intelligence. They're meant to be funny but end up being moronic. I want to kill that damn gecko. He drives me nuts.

[TalonRider]

One thing that I've noticed over the years, the sillier or stupider they make the commercial, the more you will remember the product when you see it in a store. So guess you could say, there's a method to their madness.

 

Then there's the funny commercials that get pulled because they offend someone. Take the Snickers bar commercial that aired during a Super Bowl and got pulled very shortly after that.

 

Jan

[AFriendlyFace]

Then there is the yogurt comercial where a woman refuses to go swimming because she is constipated. How does constipation affect one's ability to swim? I would think diareah would be more of a problem in the pool. :wacko:

I dunno, I'm pretty sure if I were constipated I wouldn't feel like swimming either.

 

I also make good use of the remote control. If the show I'm watching breaks for commercials, I'll flip to Fox News for 3 or 4 minutes. (You begin to develop a feel for how long a break will be.) What does surprise me is how so many networks schedule their advertising for exactly the same time as all the other channels. You can surf the channels and find commercials on all of them.

Of course and this is extremely good planning on their part! It makes avoiding the commercials all but impossible, thus people 'give up' and just watch the stupid things. Radio stations do the exact same thing. The best you can hope for is to catch a station that's starting a bit late and has one more song, then maybe catch another that's finishing up early. However, you're still stuck having to listen to a commercial for most of the middle of that time and I think that while it's extremely irritating it's a really good idea from their standpoint.

 

By sort of forming this alliance it makes them less likely to steal each other's viewers/listeners as well. Doing so of course appears appealing from an individual standpoint, but collectively it does harm - especially since no one would be watching/listening to the commercials.

Edited August 5, 2008 by AFriendlyFace

[Cynical Romantic]

Who writes this stuff?

 

Hmmm... guilty. Sort of. I don't technically write those commercials, but I do help them come to be.

 

But those of us who work in the ad biz aren't all bad people, you know. Some of us even feign being human from time to time!

[MikeL]

How could I forget the DVR? Just record all shows you want to see. Then you can zip right through the commercials during playback. My remote has a button that skips forward thirty seconds. I can press it 6 or 8 times very quickly so that it moves on with the show after five seconds or so of no commercials. Sweet!

[jfalkon]

Now that I think about it I do know at least one person who is imune to comercials. She just does not hear them. Some times I wish I could do that but I think I keep watching out of morbid curiosity. There are a few comercial ever now and then that make it worth watching I guess.

 

I don't do much chanel surfing when I watch TV but I tend to switch between radio stations. There's also the volume control. Speaking of radio, I'm also very irritated by the morning shows on music stations. Personaly, I think talk shows should be on talk stations.

[Yagami_Light]

Hopefully these can change your mind:

 

 

Now I'm sure you mean in general, as these are plucked from the thousands and thousands of commercials out there, but I'm a glass half-full kind of guy. A half-full glass of corrosive acid goes a long way towards making one's point.

 

Of course some commercials are funny because they don't have anything to do with what they're trying to sell. But you're right, some commercials just leave you saying "What the fudge"

 

Although, any commercial that starts off by saying "It's new and improved" it's usually something I don't need anyways, so I just ignore it, change the channel, leave the room, etc...

[MikeL]

Well, you selected three pretty good commercials and one loser. I remember two of them. Anything with Yogi Berra is worth watching...always funny.

 

The really bad one in your quartet is the freecreditreport.com commercial. There is some humor in it, but it is basically a scam. There is a caption on the screen at 0:25 which discloses that "Offer applies with enrollment in Triple Advantage". Without the caption, the commercial would be false advertising. They are offering something which is not free. You have to pay them $14.95 per month for a credit monitoring service; then they will supply your free credit report. You do get a seven day free trial period during which you can withdraw and not be charged for the monitoring service. How much monitoring do you get in seven days?

 

Here's the real catch. You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report. Everyone is entitled under federal law to get free credit report once each year from each of the three credit reporting agencies. In effect, you can get a free credit report once every four months and monitor your own credit standing.

To their credit, freecreditreport.com discloses this on their home page.

 

Why would they pay so much to advertise something that is free? Because they can make a lot of money by having a catchy jingle sung by cute guys.

[canundra]

mething which is not free. You have to pay them $14.95 per month for a credit monitoring service; then they will supply your free credit report. You do get a seven day free trial period during which you can withdraw and not be charged for the monitoring service. How much mWell, you selected three pretty good commercials and one loser. I remember two of them. Anything with Yogi Berra is worth watching...always funny.

 

The really bad one in your quartet is the freecreditreport.com commercial. There is some humor in it, but it is basically a scam. There is a caption on the screen at 0:25 which discloses that "Offer applies with enrollment in Triple Advantage". Without the caption, the commercial would be false advertising. They are offering soonitoring do you get in seven days?

 

Here's the real catch. You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report. Everyone is entitled under federal law to get free credit report once each year from each of the three credit reporting agencies. In effect, you can get a free credit report once every four months and monitor your own credit standing.

To their credit, freecreditreport.com discloses this on their home page.

 

Why would they pay so much to advertise something that is free? Because they can make a lot of money by having a catchy jingle sung by cute guys.

 

F-R-E-E, that spells free

creditreport.com baby.

 

or...

 

Freecreditreport.com

Yee ha!

I could have seen this coming

(something) like an atom bomb

(something) (something) (something)

send you email alerts

so you won't end up selling fish (?)

to tourists in T-shirts.

 

Yes, I memorized them. (Or at least, part of them.) I'm pathetic.

 

I have found myself to be a buyer whose buying decisions are influenced by commercials. Decisions are usually based on how funny the commercial is, how creative, how entertaining, etc. Like, I'd totally go with Geico because of the gecko.

 

Weird, I know. Probably not very smart either.

[jfalkon]

I do like the free credit report comercials. There are some which are funny. That's what keeps me watching even if I don't like many comercials.

[TalonRider]

Those commercials are pretty good.

 

You can get free credit reports, but if you want to know your credit rating, you have to pay for it.

 

Jan

[Krista]

I absolutely hate the Freecreditreport.com commercials, my god that guy annoys me. I just want to smack him around for a few minutes after seeing the commercials. I also recently saw the Old Spice commercial with the half-horse-man thing.. What are those called? Centaurs? Or are those the bull-men? Anyway, a horse-man was in the shower and it was saying that Oldspice is "two" good things in one... but yeah.. disturbing.. haha.

 

I also absolutely hate that Willy Mays? Or whatever his name is.. the guy that sells everything from Oxyclean to Life Insurance.. I cannot stand him.. blah.

 

I do like the Geico Gecko though, he's a cutie. Speaking of lizards, I hate the Vitamin water commercials with the dancing lizards and the model. I do like Vitamin water though they're for the most part yummy.

 

I do agree that the more retarded the commercials are the better we remember the product and the more we may want to try it out to see what all the hype is about.

[Phantom]

I absolutely hate the Freecreditreport.com commercials, my god that guy annoys me.

 

He annoys me too... but he is cute in that dorky sorta way lol

[Yagami_Light]

I find it entertaining. Not a great commercial, like, one you'd want to watch over and over, but I like the tune. Not even for the product, I just like the tune.

 

I know out of all those I posted, that one would get the flak. All the other ones are gold.

[Drewbie]

Like that puddy commerical, with the guy, that also did the oxiclean comerials.

[S.L. Lewis]

*is addicted to her vcr and cd player* I don't deal well with mindless comercials unless it's on the history channel. And even then I imagine doing bad things.

 

Some commercials insult my intelligence. They're meant to be funny but end up being moronic. I want to kill that damn gecko. He drives me nuts.

 

...I imagine taking my three inch, chunky heels and slowly squishing the creature...slowly. I've seen one to many gecko commercials....

[Yagami_Light]

'Nother couple good ones:

 

Now watching those isn't going to make me go out and get a Visa (already done, haha....), but it's a commercial that's uplifting. Even if you don't buy the product, if it's uplifting, perhaps it helps get you out of a foul mood, perhaps it makes your day, gives you a new perspective, strengthens your convictions (as anyone who plays sports, those two commercials would really give you something to drive for), then isn't it worth it? I think so.

 

I always thought these two were pretty entertaining as well:

Not that a condone drug use, but can you imagine watching that while on PCP? That'd be crazy. Edited August 7, 2008 by Yagami_Light

[Tiger]

...I imagine taking my three inch, chunky heels and slowly squishing the creature...slowly. I've seen one to many gecko commercials....

That sounds like a plan. The caveman commercials are just as bad. They even created a TV show based upon it. I found myself thinking...